The NORCAT Undergound Centre, the former Fecunis Mine, is accessed via an adit, has two kilometres of underground workings and eight headings.

The NORCAT Underground Centre in Onaping, 45 kilometres north of Sudbury, is an ideal venue for testing new equipment and technology for the mining industry. The former Fecunis Mine is accessed via an adit, boasts two kilometres of underground workings and has undergone extensive upgrades in the last few years.

“We have one of the largest mining supply sectors right here in our backyard,” said Jason Bubba, NORCAT director of training and development. “A lot of these companies are developing products to be used in an underground environment, but it’s inherently difficult to test them in operating mines. That’s what makes our Underground Centre such a valuable resource.

“If a company runs into a problem with its product, they can fix it, come back, test it and then bring it to market.”

The fact that it’s accessible via an adit is a huge advantage, said Bubba, because companies don’t have to worry about cage times or the size of the equipment being tested.

“They can have a drift or a section of the mine for a day, a week, a month, whatever they need.”

The mine has been equipped with a new ventilation system with heated air for more comfortable working conditions in winter, an air monitoring system, new men’s and women’s drys, and office facilities.

“People doing technology testing at the mine have a nice, clean environment where they can go at the end of the day, shower, and change into street clothes,” said Bubba.

They can rent fully equipped office space with printers and WiFi, get on their computer, check their email and return phone calls without having to travel back to Sudbury. There’s also a boardroom within the mine that’s available for meetings.

Several companies use the NORCAT Underground Centre as a showcase for their products. Maestro Mine Ventilation, for example, has installed its air quality monitoring system and Marquee Display showing air quality readings, K4 Integration has supplied a cutting-edge digital tag-in board, Halo Solutions has brightened up the mine with its LED strip lighting, and Cisco Systems has donated a heavy-duty mine-wide WiFi system.

“Companies that install their technology in the mine for demonstration purposes are welcome to bring their customers to us,” said Bubba. “As a benefit, we get to use that technology.”

In some cases, a company will bring a piece of equipment to the Underground Centre solely for the purpose of photographing it in a realistic mining environment.

In addition to using the mine as a technology testing centre, NORCAT conducts hard rock common core training where new or reassigned workers learn how to drill, blast and muck.

Trainees are either mining company employees making a transition from surface to underground work environments, new workers who have left the oil patch in Western Canada in the hope of breaking into the mining industry, First Nation youth, or recent grads.

The mine has a several refurbished load-haul-dump machines and a scissor lift truck, as well as a supply of jacklegs and stopers. There’s no ore being produced, but it looks and sounds like an operating mine, which suits companies testing their products, said Bubba.

“Sometimes, they need to test their technology in an area that’s dirty, with equipment moving around and people in there. They want that reference-able environment, not just the rock. They want the activity that’s going on in the mine as well. That’s where we’re unique. I don’t know of another mine in Canada or North America that will do this type of technology testing.”

Mike Gribbons, Maestro Mine Ventilation’s vice-president, marketing and sales, exhibited the company’s air quality and airflow monitoring solution at a Synergy Controls Instrumentation Expo held in Sudbury and Timmins in June.

An air quality monitoring and control solution developed by Sudbury-based Maestro Mine Ventilation is flying off the shelves. After only three years on the market, the company reports approximately 60 installations in underground mines across North America.

“It’s a niche that’s been totally ignored for the last 30 years,” commented vicepresident of marketing and sales Mike Gribbons.

Legacy systems the company is replacing are “1970s technology,” he said. “No one else has taken underground air quality monitoring to the level that we have.”

The system monitors carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and other gases, as well as airflow 24/7. It plugs directly into a network switch, operates on Ethernet or leaky feeder, alerts mine personnel on surface through a web-based interface if there is a problem and controls fans and louvers.

Best of all, it’s a fraction of the price of conventional technology.

“The old way of doing it is to use an analog system that goes into a PLC and back up to the network,” said Gribbons. “That kind of system usually takes six to eight months to commission whereas ours can be commissioned in a day.

“Conventional air quality monitoring stations were custom-designed and ended up costing anywhere from $40,000 to $120,000. We can drive that cost down to between $10,000 and $15,000.”

The recently released third generation of the solution includes gas, air flow and humidity sensors designed and assembled in house, resulting in security of supply, better quality control and improved pricing.

“We developed our sensors specifically for underground mines,” said Gribbons.

Conventional gas sensors have to be calibrated underground to reflect the atmospheric pressure at depth. “Our system does not require that because we have pressure and temperature compensation built into each sensor. This means a mine can calibrate a sensor in a controlled environment on surface or in a refuge station and it will be compensated up to two atmospheres, which is greater than the maximum pressure in any mine.”

Alerts

The Maestro Mine Ventilation solution also alerts mine personnel on surface in the event of a sensor malfunction. With legacy systems, a sensor could cease functioning and no one would know.

For mines looking to reduce energy costs through ventilation-on-demand technology, accurate and reliable air quality monitoring is critical.

With reliable, real-time air quality monitoring in place from surface, mines also have much better control over blast time clearance, said Gribbons.

“This is a real competitive advantage from a production standpoint because if you can return into an area a half hour earlier, that’s another 30 more minutes of drill time per day.”

Maestro Mine Ventilation has sold systems to Vale, Xstrata, First Nickel and KGHM International in Sudbury, but most of its sales have been to mines outside Ontario.

“A typical mine project will start off with one to four air quality monitoring systems,” said Gribbons. “After a year, they’ll start to roll them out, so a lot of our customers have come back and are ordering 10 or 20 per mine. Some are up to 30 or 40 systems, so they’ll have the whole mine outfitted for air quality monitoring.”

The company also sells marquee displays to communicate real-time air quality data and other information on the individual mine level.

“We can push data like available horsepower per level so operators know if a scoop tram can enter a mine working,” said Gibbons. “It operates on leaky feeder or Ethernet and is truly failsafe. If communication is lost, which happens quite often, the marquee won’t display past values. It will go to asterisks. That’s important because past values can put you in a dangerous situation if it says there’s 500 horse power available when in fact there’s only 50 horse power available.”

Sales representation

Sister company Synergy Controls is looking after sales in Ontario and Manitoba, Cypress Sales Partnership has been signed up for Saskatchewan and Everest Automation is handling sales in Quebec. Maestro Mine Ventilation itself is looking after the U.S. market and is actively seeking distributors for Australia, South Africa and South America. The company exhibited its air quality monitoring technology at the Australian Mine Ventilation Conference in Adelaide July 1 to 3 and will be showcasing its technology at the 10th International Mine Ventilation Congress in South Africa in August 2014.